Rare document thief set for sentencing

An assistant who helped a presidential memorabilia collector steal thousands of valuable documents from historical archives nationwide is set to be sentenced.

Jason Savedoff is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in federal court in Baltimore. The 25-year-old acknowledged in a plea deal earlier this year that he helped Barry Landau research documents and then steal them from numerous institutions.

Prosecutors have said the pair referred to each other as “weasel 1″ and “weasel 2″ and would distract staff, sometimes with cookies and donuts, and then stuff valuable documents into secret pockets in their clothing.

The pair’s thefts were exposed last year after they were caught stealing documents from the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore. Landau pleaded guilty and was sentenced in June to seven years in prison.